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Monday, August 27, 2012

Review: The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Mackie Doyle is not one
of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a
world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls
ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the
crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies
to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in
the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to
practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when
Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the
underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures
of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Review:

I am disappointed.
I was expecting to like this, and I did not.

The Replacement about Mackie,
a changeling. He’s the baby that replaces the baby that the fairies stole.
This, on its own, is a really good idea. That alone caught my interest. And
Mackie has lived longer than most in his place seem to, and he’s having a hard
time living surrounded by everything human. His family knows, and the town
knows this happens but not that it happened to him. And he’s badly affected by
all the iron and steel in the world, in cars and in blood. And then he meets
people like him, who pull him in and help him, but it’s not that easy. Because
someone he knows sister was taken, and it’s just going to keep happening, and
he doesn’t like it.

This sounds very
good and very interesting, and those things I listed, are. But then there was
all this stuff that didn’t need to be there. Mackie and Tate’s relationship for
one. I didn’t mind that it happened, and I didn’t mind Tate, even liked her in
one scene of the book, but their relationship didn’t work. They fought, and she
got pissed off at him, and she was a bitch and yet he still wanted to make out
with her, and there was no reason for any of it. He had an attraction to her
from the beginning of the book, but there was never any reason for it. It was
just suddenly there, for no reason, and wouldn’t go away. And then she would be
pissed at him, no reason given. It wasn’t quite insta-love, because it wasn’t
love, it was just attraction.

Another thing that
bothered me: A lot of stuff wasn’t explained. It was hinted that people knew
things, that there were stories told, and that his friends knew things about
him, but you never really knew how much. I guess because they never talked
about it, until finally they did. With his best friend, Roswell. And with Tate.
For some reason, she starts coming to him, bothering him about things, with no
reason, and he blows her off, tries to avoid her, and it doesn’t work. But it’s
never explained why she hounds him so much, when it’s never really explained
that everyone thinks he’s weird. Because, why would everyone think he’s weird
and still hang out with him so much? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

And those things
took so much time. Mackie took a lot of time with not knowing what to do,
wanting something and then suddenly wanting something else. Ignoring something
one minute and then trying to talk about it the next. It was like he couldn’t
make up his mind, only he never thought of it like that. There was never an in
between for his thoughts to change, they just suddenly did.

A lot of the book
focused on Mackie and Tate, and then Mackie and his family, and then Mackie and
the people like him. With nothing getting done. And then, when things started
happening, it took forever. It was so slow going, so anticlimactic. One scene,
within the last fifty pages, was exciting and really good, but the rest just
took forever.

I wanted Mackie to
finally just kick someone’s ass, beat someone up, get it over with already, but
he fought so weakly, with no force. It was ridiculous and I did not enjoy it.

I liked: Emma,
Mackie’s older sister. Their relationship was done really well. She took care
of him since he was young, and so they got to be really close. They were loyal
to each other all the way through, and I liked that.

I did quite like
Roswell, and maybe even Danny and Drew, but I don’t think there was enough of
them to really make it official for me.

I liked the set-up
for everything, too. The lore, what Mackie is, what the people like him are
like, that was all really interesting. And the writing was good. It was pretty
and then disturbing when it needed to be. The ending wasn’t too bad, either. It
was just the characters and the lack of action that bothered me; that didn’t
keep me interested.

I don’t know if I’m
going to read another of Yovanoff’s books. I might give her another try, but I
might not, and it might take a while if I do decide to.

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Updates.

9/29/16 (re-edit)My review days are changing to Monday - Thursday. I'm planning to do reviews on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday will be Teasers, possibly with a little wishlist or catch-up included. I am currently moving, and have just started back in school. Third year of college, and working, and I am starting to have very little time for everything. I'm trying to keep up with this, though, on top of it all.

Thanks!-Jude

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An amateur reviewer, and blogger in general, (hopefully) getting better as I go.
If you have a question, or are interested in sending me a review copy, or for just anything, really, you can e-mail me at: geekyreading@hotmail.com

Ratings and Stuff

I post my reviews on both Goodreads and Amazon (although some do not go on Amazon, if I think it's more of a rant than anything else), sometimes on Powells, and I will post the review somewhere else if asked (although, take into consideration the fact that some websites have a word limit, and some of my reviews exceed that limit).

Ratings:1 Star: It sucked, I had a hard time reading it. Couldn't stand any of the book. (Possibly didn't finish, but I usually don't rate or review those.)2 Stars: Didn't really like it/lower side of just alright.3 Stars: Liked it/was about average.4 Stars: Was really good/loved it/awesome.4.5 Stars: Loved it completely, practically 5 stars to everyone else.5 Stars: I don't tend to give these out, um, ever. It's more common for me to give it to a whole series than one particular book. The best book ever, I hold it above most others, it impressed me and made me unbelievably happy.

Aside from those general ratings, I'll give books in-between numbers. Like, if it was good, but not amazing, I'll give it a 3.5. If it was just alright, but not too bad, a 2.5.

Review Copies: I do accept review copies. I much prefer paper books, but I do read some ebooks on my phone. Also, I do prefer romance, young adult, manga, and erotica. And please, do look at my previously rated and reviewed books to see if yours matches with what I've liked. Thanks! :)Receiving a review copy in no way influences my rating or thoughts on a book.